1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a gloss control method, and particularly to an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording medium with electrophotography and a gloss control method for controlling gloss of an image formed on a recording medium with electrophotography.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording medium with electrophotography has been known. Types of recording media on which an image is to be formed have recently been various. For example, bond paper has fine projections and recesses at its surface owing to a material therefor (paper fiber). Meanwhile, coated paper has a smooth surface shape because a coating layer is formed on its surface. Since bond paper and coated paper are different in surface shape from each other, they are different in gloss (glossiness) from each other.
In forming an image (a toner image) on a recording medium, depending on difference between gloss of a portion where an image is formed (an image portion) and gloss of a background portion of a recording medium where no image is formed (a non-image portion), a user may feel disagreeable. In general, gloss of an image formed on a recording medium should be set not to have a user feel disagreeable, depending on a type of a recording medium. On the other hand, there is also a case where difference in gloss is intentionally set between an image portion and a non-image portion and the difference in gloss is utilized as means for improving added value of an output image.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 64-029887 discloses a fixing apparatus in which selection between providing gloss to an image and not providing gloss to an image is made by changing a temperature for fixing an image.